This is an excellent project. I've never done it and the reason I'm posting this to give people a clue that pennies minted before 1964 are 95% copper, after 1964 they are 95% zinc you may wonder why this is important. Well you see at today's metal values a copper penny has an actual value of between 2 and 3¢ each. That plus the fact that in a $25.00 box of pennies you will probably find about 12-20 wheat pennies, ok now we are talking real money here. In ten $25.00 boxes of pennies I have found 2 Indian head coins, and this is a true treasure. I can't explain why these truly old coins might be found in a box that you get at the bank but I suspect that these old coins were in a junk drawer and finnaly taken to the bank without consideration of their potential value today.

Yes. As I already stated I was incorrect regarding the dates when the copper penny went to zinc. There probably are other variances I am not aware of, and yes I confused silver in dimes and quarters with the minting dates for pennies.

The federal government does not have a problem with the complete destruction of any type of currency be it coins or paper bills. That merely has the effect of strengthening the currency, its negligible if not even measurable. Attempting to alter the value of any sort of currency is something they will prosecute to the fullest degree possible. Only the government has the authority to do that. Have you not noticed that when the value of silver went up the mint [government] changed to zinc plated copper and then released those new coins as dimes and quarters. Our money today is only valuable because we agree to accept that a FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE has value even if there is nothing in the federal reserve to back up those notes.

Indeed. My bad. My comments was made before I even started on my 1st cup of coffee. Err Oops sorry.